If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Searching across verse boundaries in Greek NT

Greetings All,

In the Greek new testament I am trying to search across all verses, not just within verses. I may have missed the answer to this question elsewhere on the forum or in the BW8 Helps. If so, please provide me a little guidance.

Suppose I would like to find all occurrences of two adverbs sequentially next to each other but the first adverb is at the end of one verse and the second adverb is at the beginning of the next verse. What does the command line for this search look like?

You want all instances of sequential adverbs (i.e., right next to each other), including instances where they are in different verses.

To find them within the same verse, use one of the Greek morphological versions: BGM, BNM, BLM...
On the command line: '*@b *@b

To find them across a verse boundary, use: '*@b *@b;2

That semicolon allows you to conduct a search across X number of verses.

If you need something fancier, you can also use the Graphical Search Engine. Compose your search, then on the menu: Query > Properties > Flags > and enable "Cross verse boundaries"

Greetings MGVH,

With your directions into the Graphical Search Engine I was able to extrapolate six hits. Actually a whole lot more. I had to manually look at each verse to determine if the first adverb was indeed the last word in the verse. In each of the six hits it was followed by a second adverb as the first word in the next verse. As such, mission accomplished.

The command line - '*@b *@b;2 – did not produce the desired results, only showing verses with two adverbs next to each other.

Hmmm... the command line one should work... For example, it should have returned Matthew 21.36. If you look, you will see that the adverb is at the end of the verse, and there is an adverb which is the first word of 21.37.

The Command Line search allows for a cross-verses search, but it does not require it. The Command Line search will find any combination, both within a single verse and traversing two verses.

In the GSE you can create a phrase search for two adverbs (no intervening words). Turn on cross-verse searching. Then, in order to require that the first adverb appear in the last word of the verse, open the first adverb's Word Box and check the box for "Position | Specify postion in verse '1' ", and select the radion button "from end". In this way the two-word phrase must traverse two verses. I found 16 hits using the BNM as the search version.

In the GSE you can create a phrase search for two adverbs (no intervening words). Turn on cross-verse searching.

How do you do this? I do not see an option anywhere in the GSE called "cross-verse searching." When I double click on the "And" box, I see "Proximity" and "Match within __ verses." When I put "2" in the blank, click "OK" and then do the search, BW produces the message: "Can't run query" and tells me "Verse proximity (in the merge boxes) can't be used in a query using ordering or agreement. To mix ordering and agreement with proximity conditions Use WORD proximity (specified in ordering boxes) instead.
You may need to split your query into sub-queries. The GSE tutorials give an example of this."
I already have a "WORD proximity" or "ordering" box. It is set to "exactly 0." But that will not allow me to search across verse boundaries (I think.) When I run the search without anything on the "Match within __ verses" space, using BGM I get zero hits. I assume this is because GSE is searching for a single verse which both begins and ends with an adverb and has no words between, namely a verse which contains two words, both of which are adverbs.
The examples in Help do not show any cross-verse searches, so I have no idea what to put in a subquery.
What do I not understand correctly?
Mark Eddy

Yes, I saw that, and I did that, but that does not eliminate the problem which I had. Sorry.
Mark Eddy

I ran into the same problem when I started with ’*@b *@b;2 on the command line, and asked for the equivalent GSE query.
When I used ’*@b *@b and then did the Query > Properties > Flags > and enable "Cross verse boundaries" it worked fine.
Looks like the AND box with "in 2" caused the problem.